Detectives from the 24th Precinct tracked homicide suspect Alexander Clement, 29, to Louisiana and arrested him there on February 8, according to NYPD officials. Clement was indicted the next day, charged with second-degree murder in the April 27thstabbing death of Special Anthony Steward, 24, according to a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney. Steward, who lived on 103rd Street, was killed outside of the La Nueva Victoria restaurant on 95th Street and Broadway in April, and police had offered a reward for information leading to an arrest.

Clement’s attorney Eric M. Sears told WSR that Clement pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and remains in custody. The next court date in the matter is scheduled for April 4th.

Steward’s murder was one of two homicides in the precinct during 2017. Capt. Seth Lynch, Commanding Officer of the 24th, said Wednesday that investigations continue in the December 16shooting of Damian Ramirez, 48, outside Manhattan Brew & Vine at 109th and Columbus, a bar/restaurant operated by Ramirez.

“Great work, NYPD, thank you! I certainly hope they did not use Stop, Question, Frisk in Louisiana and violated Mr. Clement’s rights!”

This obvious sarcasm is incredibly ill-informed. Police have the right to stop and frisk someone when they are suspected of a crime, here or in Louisiana. NYPD continues to stop and frisk actual suspects in NYC.

What was ended in NYC was the outright racist policy of RACIAL PROFILING stop and frisk — in which hundreds of thousands of people, the vast majority of them African American and Hispanic males, were stopped and frisked on the streets without any suspicion that they had committed a criminal act. this was the very definition of the violation of civil rights and human rights. Are you upset that the NYPD no longer engages in this overtly racist practice?

When the racist version of stop and frisk was ended, almost every right wing pundit in town predicted that crime would go through the roof. But they were wrong, and they won’t admit they were wrong.

The NYPD has now embarked upon the far more enlightened practice of “community policing.” This has been greeted positively by the affected communities and also, in my experience, by the police themselves, the majority of whom do not want to be committing racially offensive acts on a daily basis.

A recent article in WSR about community policing in the 24th Precinct had many positive comments, asking for the expansion of the program on the UWS.

But i guess a few die-hards want to bring back the racial profiling of the Bloomberg era, even though there is a better way to combat crime. I wonder why? Maybe Ben David will explain.

I am ( last I know) a white man.
I have been stopped by cops in a S & F three times between 2000 and 2009.
Twice on West End ave. in the 80’s, and once on Riverside Drive in the 70’s.
I was walking, all three times, around 10pm, back home, minding my own business.
Never once did I think it was a racist move by the cops.
I welcomed the fact that they can, and should, stop me, or anyone, in case they were looking for someone who resembles how I look.
Enough with the race baiting BS. Enough.
Any time the word RACE or RACIST is said, it lowers the level of the conversation.
Bruce is a good guy with good intentions.
But – as we all can at times – he strays from the logical thought, and goes, too fast, into the RACE card.
It will not do Bruce.
We are who we are.
And you can’t change this.

Mr. Bruce Bernstein calls me ill-informed. His lack of knowledge and expertise in law enforcement matters is so obvious.

First, if you speak to any member of the NYPD, the vast majority will tell you that they no longer conduct ‘stop, question, frisk’, because they are scared of lawsuits about racial profiling. They may (and I stress may in very specific cases) have the right to do it, but ultimately a judge will decide — not a police official. Given the climate of hatred for law enforcement, and the continuing deadly ambushes on police officers, it is no wonder that NYPD cops do not want to risk a lawsuit, and often are forced to look the other way.

Second, the reason that we were able to get crime rates so low is BECAUSE of proactive policing!

If anyone wants the facts on this topic, you should visit the Manhattan Institute website and search for the paper titled,
“Don’t Take the Wrong Lessons from New York City’s Murder Drop.” Mr. Bernstein, kindly read this article.

I’ve read it. And I have no doubt that police officers are unsure how to proceed if race cannot be a factor in the decision whether to stop and frisk.

That doesn’t change the fact that racial profiling is wrong (nor that anecdotal evidence that the occasional white man was also stopped and frisked during a period ending 8 years ago is not proof of very much):

Yes, it gets old reading about racial issues. Yes, sometimes it is overdrawn or misapplied. But that doesn’t change the fact that racism persists – and the answer to the people who over-emphasize race as an issue is not to dismiss racism altogether but to discuss, learn, seek to discern when race is and isn’t relevant.

But in the meantime, it would do wel to remember that there is a long history, with pervasive racism, that must be overcome. I’m still learning about the ways in which it continues to affect people today. I also know that the police are often the only people protecting many people of color, and do a job I haven’t got the capacity or the courage to do. Still, holding them to Constitutional standards is hardly unreasonable, and teaching us all to look beyond race is not a bad thing. We all tend to judge one another based on what we have learned and assumed about each other. Sometimes, we have to be pushed to change those assumptions. The police are capable of change, and they will learn how to deal with this, hopefully remembering to treat all the people they serve better.

first of all, regarding the article that Ben David seems to take as unquestioned truth, “Don’t take the Wrong Lessons From NYC’s Murder Drop”: it was written by Heather Macdonald, a notorious right wing pundit. It is a very insulting, race-baiting article.

Her reason for NYC’s crime drop? (she doesn’t mention that crime has dropped ACROSS THE BOARD, not only murders.) The gentrification of certain neighborhoods, with Blacks being pushed out and replaced by whites!

this is easily refuted, as crime and murders have dropped in most non-gentrified neighborhoods. But apparently she is too invested in railing at the Black community.

i also want to note the misnomer being used, “pro-active policing”, as a stand-in for racial profiling. The NYPD is currently pursuing a “pro-active policing” strategy: community policing. The Heather Macdonalds of the world predicted that when racial profiling was replaced with community policing, crime would skyrocket. Now they just ignore the fact that they were wrong and try to make other race based arguments. In fact, community policing works, without violating the constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of people.

the racial profiling advocates also fail to recognize that crime dropped both BEFORE Bloomberg instituted racial profiling, under Dinkins and Giuliani, and also AFTER, under Di Blasio.

the racial profiling era is a dark page in NYC’s policing history. it replicated some of the worst practices of the Jim Crow South. especially since we know that there are more effective methods of policing, why would anyone want to bring this back?

I could care less how they got him, as long as they got him. If they want to stop and frisk everyone in town on a daily basis I’d be just fine with it. “Civil rights” should include the civil right to be safe from thugs and criminals like this guy.

it is very disturbing when people have such little understanding of America’s democratic protections and our rights. At the end of the day, this is what has given us Trump. There is a good 35% – 40% of the population that does not seem to have much love for the Constitution, except for perhaps their distorted understanding of the 2nd Amendment.

What Rob and UWSHebrew describe and approve is how a police state functions.

Murder 1, on the books, is the death penalty.
If found guilty – maybe he should be the first to get it.
But – we all know the way it goes here in
NY state.
1o to 30, and he’ll be out in 12.
Assuming he’s guilty, of course.